Afghans fleeing danger, hopelessness at home run into peril transiting Iran
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Version 0 of 1. KABUL — For the tens of thousands of Afghan migrants fleeing to Europe, the hardest part of the journey may not be the perilous trip across the Mediterranean Sea. Before they navigate that risk, many have to get through Iran. That step on the Afghans’ westward journey is being met by an abusive crackdown from Iranian security officials, according to Afghans who say they have faced arrests, beatings, torture and gunfire from Iranian guards blocking access to Turkey. The stories of abuse are surprising mostly because Iran has a history of some hospitality for Afghans, accepting more than 2 million of their neighbors during the 1980s and ’90s as they fled the Soviet occupation and subsequent civil war. Now that Afghans are trying to use Iran as a pathway to Europe, that warmth has shifted, affecting as many as 80,000 Afghans who, according to unofficial Afghan government statistics, have fled their country this year, with most hoping to settle in Western and Northern Europe. Government leaders here are pleading with residents to stay home instead of testing the patience of Iranian officials, after reports that dozens of Afghans heading to Europe have been killed in Iran in recent weeks. “They cut a water pipe and were beating us with water pipes,” said Mortaz Ibrahimi, an Afghan teenager arrested by Iranian authorities near the Turkish border in late July. “It was beating after beating.” According to Afghan officials, Iran has justified its harsh treatment of migrants as essential in the effort to prevent foreigners from joining the Islamic State, the militant group battling Iran’s allies in Syria and Iraq. “The Iranian government has violated the rights of these people, but the Iranian government told the Afghan government, ‘Do something to stop these people,’ ” said Islamuddin Jurat, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations. He said that Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli was in Kabul in September to deliver the message. “They told us they are very serious.” Iran’s ambassador in Kabul, Mohammad Reza Bahrami, declined an interview request, as did his spokesman. Iranian officials also did not reply to written questions about the allegations. Afghan migrants caught attempting to sneak into Turkey via Iran say they are being detained and interrogated in prisons in Iran — even though many of them are Shiite Muslims with no ideological link to Sunni-dominated terrorist groups such as the Islamic State. About 1 million registered Afghans live in Iran, many of them holding low-skill, low-paying jobs. But in recent years, Iranian authorities have steadily made it more difficult for Afghans to stay in the country. Hundreds of thousands are deported each year, including many who were born in Iran decades ago. More than a dozen of Iran’s 31 provinces have enacted bans on Afghans living or working in those jurisdictions, so most Afghans are clustered near several major cities, including the capital, Tehran. Afghan workers in Iran send about $500 million in remittances to their country each year. [Afghan government turns to militias as Taliban gains strength] Human rights officials have repeatedly lambasted the Iranian government for its policy of arbitrary deportations, cruel working conditions for Afghan migrants and a spate of executions of Afghans convicted of nonviolent crimes. Interviews with Afghans who were imprisoned in Iran this summer while trying to reach Europe show the extent of the danger. One of those interviewed, Ali Reza Samandari, said he decided to leave Afghanistan out of concern that the Taliban could sweep back into power in Kabul, the capital. So Samandari, 22, quit his job as a TV news cameramen and paid $1,000 for an Iranian visa and a flight to Tehran. Then he plotted on a map how he would fly to Tehran, cross the border into Turkey, cross the Aegean Sea by boat and walk through at least eight countries before reaching Norway, his chosen destination. After arriving in Tehran in early July, Samandari said, he paid a smuggler $700 to transport him in the back of a fruit truck to the Turkish border. Crammed in with 70 other Afghans in the windowless container, Samandari and the others were dropped off about five miles from the border. But as the Afghans camped in a field waiting for their smuggler’s help to cross the border, several men armed with pistols and assault rifles stormed in and robbed them of their cash, cellphones and backpacks. An hour later, as the scared Afghans were huddled in the field, Iranian border agents burst into the camp and arrested all of them. “They were yelling at us, ‘You are using this road to go to Turkey so you can join ISIS,’ ” said Samandari. “We were telling them, ‘No, we want to flee ISIS,’ ” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. Samandari said the Iranian guards tied him up and beat him. He was then shuffled from prison to prison, including, he said, one that housed what he estimated to be at least 2,500 other Afghans who also had been arrested for trying to cross into Turkey. During the day, Samandari said, he and other prisoners were forced to work in the homes of Iranian police officers. “They were forcing us to do chores, like washing their cars, cleaning their houses, cleaning their back yard,” he said. “And if anyone resisted, they came and beat that person badly.” Another Afghan, Ali Shah Yaqubi, 22, said he was detained in Iran for several weeks this summer after he was caught trying to cross into Turkey. When they reached a police station, he said, Iranian authorities gave prisoners a blunt ultimatum: “They said, ‘Either you go back to Afghanistan now or we are going to send you to Syria to fight for the Syrian government.’ ” Since last year, several news organizations have reported that Afghan migrants from Iran have been seen in Syria fighting for President Bashar al-Assad. Iranian officials have denied that they are forcing men fleeing Afghanistan to fight in Syria. Afghan government officials say they have not been able to substantiate the reports. In his case, Yaqubi quickly agreed to be returned to Afghanistan. But before he was released, he said, Iranian police officers demanded that he pay them $50 to drive him to the border. Mohammad Musa Mahmodi, executive director of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said he and other officials are still trying to determine how many Afghan migrants are imprisoned in Iran. Mahmodi said the reports of abuse are all the more shocking because teenagers account for a significant share of Afghanistan’s migrant population. “Young Afghans feel like they have no future here,’’ Mahmodi said. Afghans teenagers, he said, are particularly vulnerable to pitches from smugglers promising a safe, hassle-free journey to Europe. Parents in Afghanistan also mistakenly think that European nations are more likely to approve asylum requests from minors, officials said. Ibrahimi, the teenager arrested near Turkey in July, was just 16 at the time, having dropped out of school so that he could attempt to travel to Sweden with an uncle. After collecting $600 from his parents — their entire savings, he said — Ibrahimi hired a smuggler who dropped him off in northwestern Iran in a group of about 70 migrants. But one migrant was fatally shot when the group was intercepted by Iranian border guards, Ibrahimi said, and he and others were arrested, beaten and accused of trying to flee to Syria to join the Islamic State. “I was humiliated,” Ibrahimi said. “They had sticks in their hands and basically acted like they were shepherds and we were flocks of animals.” Despite such stories, the flow of Afghans trying to make the trip to Europe shows no sign of subsiding. Hundreds line up each morning at the Iranian Embassy in Kabul trying to get visas. Ahmad Shah, a visa broker who helps expedite applications, said his business is up by 40 percent — and that 80 percent of applicants are hoping to travel through Iran toward Europe. Fears over security and joblessness are so widespread in Afghanistan, he said, that many of his customers return for visas even after being arrested in Iran and returning home. “People come back here, show their backs with marks of torture and beating from Iranian guards, but say they want to try again,” Shah said. “They just want to get to a secure place, which is Europe.” Mohammad Sharif contributed to this report. Read more: Black route: One family’s journey from Aleppo to Austria Read The Post’s coverage on the global surge in migration Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world |